Vega Pre-Workout Review

     A few days ago I decided to try a pre-workout supplement by Vega. I bought the one serving sample size packets. I found them at Sprouts. I wanted to share with you what I think of taking this pre-workout and also more specifically if it works.
This is an all natural vegan supplement. It is also soy and gluten free. It is 70 Calories, has 16g carb and 12g sugar. I tried this supplement twice. The instructions on the packet say to take it about 20 minutes before your workout to give it time to kick in. I found that I felt it working closer to about 30 minutes after taking it.

     This product does work. I did find I had more energy all of a sudden. I also felt I had more focus. I realized I was lifting heavier for longer. I actually was increasing the weight on the first day (leg day) half way through my workout. I put in really good workouts the two days I took this pre-workout.

     The down side of this supplement, the taste is pretty bad. I was not expecting it to taste amazing but it was something I had to brace myself for and chug quickly. I also would prefer something with a lot less sugar.

     I do think this product works and yes I would say it is worth a try especially if you are looking for something dairy, soy and or gluten free. I personally liked how the pre-workout helped me push through my workouts without feeling tingly and jittery. That being said I do not plan on buying a bigger supply at this time because I want to try other pre-work outs. I am probably going to try NO by Cellucor next.

Checkout both products here Vega Sport and here N0 Cellucor.

Thanks for checking this out!

Ashley

My Top Tips to Help You Lose Weight

 


     I've lost 20 lbs. since the beginning of the year. In 3 months I went from 148 lbs. to 125 lbs.
While I didn't necessarily lose a huge amount of weight, I definitely learned a lot. I lost weight successfully, easily and all in a healthy way. So I wanted to share what I did and give some tips to anyone who might need some help getting started.

     First off, I did not go on a weird or crazy diet. Don't do that. Diets do not work or at least they won't keep you small long term. Don't just cut calories and or carbs. This is an okay option for some people but I would suggest talking to your doctor to make sure that is a right diet decision for you. You need carbs for energy.Without proper energy you won't be able to push yourself during your day and especially during workouts. For you to be successful you have to be willing to change your mind set, learn about nutrition and health and change your lifestyle.

1. Keep track of what you are eating
Measure out correct portions, only cook what you should eat. If you make extra you are more likely to eat more than you should. Also keep track of your calories. You can use the app My Fitness Pal. It tracks your calorie intake and portions. It uses your weight, height and gender to calculate how much you should be eating to maintain or lose weight.

2. Eat Healthy

     A lot of people make them mistake of just counting their calories and eating less. You also have to adjust what you are eating. Eating 1200 calories in potato chips and a cheeseburger won't cut it. You will lose weight but it's less likely to stick and you will eventually binge, plateau or gain it all back and more. You have to create healthy habits so when you reach your goal you can continue to live healthy and maintain your new body. You can start by checking out my grocery list here.

3. Drink water
No soda, juice, sugar drinks and fatty sugary coffee. ONLY water and tea. regular coffee is fine. Just watch your sugar intake and no creamer or milk; almond milk or a soy creamer are good substitutes. Drink at least 64 oz. of water a day!

4. Exercise
While weight loss is hugely based on diet, you have to workout to make sure you are burning enough calories and building nice muscle so you don't just look "skinny" and flabby but toned. Girls tend to worry about lifting heavy, don't! You won't look like a man, promise. The more muscle you have vs. fat the slimmer you will look and the more fat you will burn in general when not doing anything.

5. Chose a plan to follow
Especially for someone just starting, it is a lot easier to have a set plan to follow. You can do a beach body program such as P90X which I really liked! I did this while losing weight. You can go to blogilates.com for free workout calendars and videos. Bodybuilding.com also has great programs to chose from based on your fitness goals.

6. Get rid of unhealthy foods in your house
Your family and or housemates need to be on board. You can't have junk food and tempting items in the kitchen. Toss it!
Feel free to leave questions and comments below :) Follow my blog and my google+.
Check out my youtube videos here. Thanks so much, Ashley

September Challenge!

     Better late than never, at least that's what I figured. I have slacked off a bit over the past couple of months. I've been in a stress-crazed slump(If that at all makes any sense haha). I'm ready to get back on track! Instead of giving a long explanation with excuses I'm just going to jump right in with this month's challenge.

This month I personally need a push and with school just starting it can get difficult to manage working out, school, work and planning meals. I want to make sure I make working out a priority. I'm going to set a fitness goal to work out everyday until the end of September. This would mean that on some days I might need to take it easier so I don't over-work my muscles. Of course I'll make sure to let each muscle group rest by working out different areas each day. The food challenge is to make sure I'm eating every 3 to 4 hours. These meals should be small and healthy. On top of that I'm setting the challenge to cut out sweets. No added sugars, desserts, cake, Starbucks coffee, etc. With fall flavors hitting the stores and coffee shops I know this might be difficult so I'm going to allow one sweet once a week. So one coffee or one piece of cake or whatever your taste buds desire. Extra points if you choose a healthier sweet!
Good Luck!
Please follow my blog with your Google account or add me to your circles. Follow me on Youtube for awesome vids!
Thanks so much,
Ashley

Fitness and Food challenge: August

The fitness and food challenge for August is to not eat any dairy products during the entire month. And of course workout at least 5 to 6 times a week. 

Good luck! Let me know how it's going for you,

     Ashley

For all you tea drinkers!

   
     I was recently introduced to a brand of tea that is pretty popular over in Canada by one of Camron's cousins. We were visiting Camron's family in the very small town of Holbrook, AZ over the 4th of July weekend. His cousin Amy and I got to talking and realized we both were hardcore tea drinkers, she is from Canada and told me about where she gets her tea from. It's this company called David's Tea. There are a few stores here in the states, a few on the east coast and a couple in California, you can check for locations on the website. For anyone who doesn't live near one like me, you can order online. They have so many flavors and types of tea, from green, white, black, etc. Tonight I tried the toasted walnut tea with some honey. It's super delicious! The flavors are seriously awesome, and the teas smell so good! For example, the tea of the month for July is called Guava Cadabra, and it has ingredients such as mango, apple, hibiscus blooms, elderberries and a few more. It sounds so good, just go read the description on the homepage! Anyways, I'm pretty stoked about buying tea, in case you can't tell haha.  On a side note, if you spend $50 or more shipping is free.  So I just though I'd share this for any other tea fans out there. You can check David's tea here.

       Hope everyone is having a good day or night! Talk to you later,
                                                                               Ashley

Warrior Dash Mud Run

Warrior Dash!

     I'm hoping I can do this, or rather I hope I can go to Colorado this year for this awesome mud run! Unfortunately, being a student means I have restrictions on what I can do if it costs money. And of course, most everything in life does cost. I would love to do the warrior dash, the next one that would be the closest to me would be in Colorado. I know it would be so fun to take a trip there and complete this with Camron. Saving money while also paying for school in August may prove difficult. I'm not saying I will be able to do this in October but this mud run is for sure on my to do list for 2014 if not this year:)

     Another one on my list is the Color Run! The one I would do if I could would be in Tuscon, AZ on December 21st. Check the Color Run here.

Check info below and see the website for The Warrior Dash here.

     What races have you done in the past year? What are some you are hoping to do?

Colorado - 17 Aug., 2013

LOCATION

Copper Mountain Ski Resort
209 Ten Mile Circle
Copper Mountain, CO 80443

*Obstacles, location, venue, date and course are subject to change.

Race Length

3.00 miles

Wave Times

Waves of up to 500 participants will start at the following times:

8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00

10:30 11:00 11:30 Noon

12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00

2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00

4:30 5:00 5:30

PRICING:

$70* until 11:59pm** on Wednesday, 17 July, 2013

$75* until 11:59pm** on Wednesday, 7 Aug., 2013

$90* until 11:59pm** on Tuesday, 13 Aug., 2013

Chicken Fajita Salad Recipe

Ingredients:
Serves 2

This is a super simple salad recipe that I really like! It's quick, easy and can be altered any way you want. Hope everyone gets inspired to either make this salad or make another salad with your favorite ingredients! Enjoy,
      Ashley

• 1 Chicken breast
• 1/4 cup onions chopped
• 1/2 cup mixed red and green bell peppers sliced
• Fajita type seasoning of your choice
• 1 Avocado
• lettuce mix of your choice (I like arugula and spinach)
• 1 Tomato
• Dressing of your choice, I use balsamic vinaigrette or red wine vinegar.

1. Cut chicken into small pieces  or strips, cook chicken completely, add in seasoning and onions while cooking.
2. Add in bell peppers the last five minutes of cooking, when the chicken is almost done.
3. Cut up avocado and tomatoes 
4. Throw all ingredients on top of your lettuce and add dressing.

How I make Sweet Potato Fries

     I'm not going to lie, french fries are good. Yes, I like them a lot and I do eat them...sometimes. The fact of the matter is that they are garbage when deep fried and smothered in bad fats (cheese, sour cream, etc. Regular french fries are really really high in sodium, very starchy, greasy, very high in calories and will probably make you look 5 months pregnant (ya know cause' of the sodium that'll cause water retention). Wow long sentence. Anyways, I have discovered that though french fries are good, sweet potato fries are just as good and after awhile of ditching the french fries you stop wanting them.
   
   You can eat regular fries from potatoes too if you follow this same recipe and cook it the same way. Sweet potatoes are a little better for you than regular ones, but as long as you aren't eating potato chips or fries from a fast food place you can definitely still indulge. Sweet potatoes are not as starchy. They are a good source of fiber and vitamin A. Alright, I'll get on to the recipe.

Ingredients: For two

• 1 Large sweet potato (I prefer white sweet potatoes, but orange are fine too)
• olive oil
• black pepper
• a tiny bit of garlic salt or sea salt

1. Cut potato into strips, be careful sweet potatoes are harder to cut than regular ones.
2. lay the strips out on baking tray.
3. Sprinkle a little olive oil over fries (optional, I actually don't do this but some people prefer it. I can't tell the difference)
4. Season fries, don't overdue the sodium.
5. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

*Serve with chicken, a turkey burger or underneath a fried egg (sunny-side-up).

Leave me a comment! And of course follow my blog!!! you can use your Google account to sign up on the left. Get updated when I post new recipes, fitness stuff or anything else that I find makes life happy.

Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body.

New Fitness goals: Muscle is sexy ;)

   

     I have gotten down to 125.2 lbs. I fluctuate up to 128 depending on what I eat and what not. I now feel like I reached my weight loss goal. Now I am setting new goals. With about, if not over 20 lbs. lost I feel like I need to step up my workouts so that I can build muscle. When I was in The Dominican Republic I wasn't able to eat as clean and as healthy. I didn't have the same options and a lot of times not so healthy food was convenient. I've been back in the states for about a month and have had difficulty drawing that same strict line I had before. I am more lenient than I want to be. I am going grocery shopping tomorrow and once again cutting out the foods I should not be eating. The one thing I need to remember with this lifestyle is that even when I reach a goal, I'm not done. This is an everyday thing and my goals are always changing and challenging me to go further. I am now setting new goals for me to gain more muscle. Right now I am setting a goal to tighten up my body and just gain as much muscle as I can in this next month. For July 4th, Camron and I will be going to his family reunion and so I am setting that as a marker to see just how hard I can push myself and how much of a change I can make in my body in just a month.
Wish me luck :)

Ashley

I LOVE Chai tea!

     Since I have to try and keep my caffeine consumption down (due to anxiety related issues) I have been drinking more tea. Though chai tea is usually made with black tea and does have caffeine in it, it is not even half as much as there is in an equivalent serving of coffee. Originally when I started eating clean I cut out all drinks besides water, then eventually I allowed tea and coffee...but definitely not from Starbucks.

     

     Now that I have lost almost 20 lbs. I do feel my self loosening up. I like that can relax now, but at the same time it makes me nervous. Over all yes I still am eating as much unprocessed foods as I can. But I have stopped by Starbucks a couple of times over the past few weeks to get chai tea (which really isn't that often and it fit in my calorie budget still) I realized spending $5.00 on chai tea really is ridiculous when I could probably just make it myself. They sell chai tea concentrates at pretty much any grocery store for around 4 to 5 dollars. I purchased the TAZO brand one, it has 8 servings and you can mix it with almond or soy milk. As far as it being clean...no not really but if you really like chai every once in awhile and want a more economical way to get your fix, buying the concentrate make a lot more sense. The Tazo concentrate is 60 calories per serving and also has a decaffeinated option.

     Going along with this chai topic, today I was at target getting a few snacks and hair color and I came across this chai tea that's already mixed with soy milk. I was feeling like I needed something to drink anyways so I thought i'd try it. It is the Bolthouse Farms Vanilla Chai Tea. Again not really clean, it does have 7g of protein per serving but so would the chai concentrate if mixed with soy. The chai concentrate is about 60 calories per 4 oz. serving not counting the 4 oz. of milk, where the 8 oz. serving of the vanilla chai tea is 160 calories and it is already mixed. But if you want a treat and can afford it calorie wise, the calorie content is not really that high. I just would not drink this everyday haha. The biggest issue with these drinks are the sugar content. The vanilla chai has 26g of sugar! WHAT?! Yeah...so again it's a treat. But both these options are more economical than going to Starbucks and maybe in the end actually less calories.

Anyways, leave me a comment and subscribe puhhlease :)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!

This isn't my recipe! But... here are the pictures of the batch of cookies I made:

I should have flattened them a bit more before baking...next time!


You can find the recipe here: Melskitchencafe
Awesome blog with so many recipes!! BUT as with any recipe, make sure to look at ingredients and substitute/tweak accordingly to make as healthy as possible :)

Here is how I tweaked this recipe,
I only used brown sugar, and half of the total sugar recommended.
I used I can't believe it's not butter, in place of actual butter.
I used whole wheat flour.
I used 62% dark chocolate chunks and I only used half of the recommended amount.

What to do about Cheat Meals

     I don't really believe in setting aside certain days to "cheat" on your meal(s). I know that some people like to set aside one day a week where they can can eat one meal or even the whole day and not think about what they are eating. Since eating healthy is about creating a lifestyle, I think it is important to NOT look at eating healthy as a chore, punishment and something you dread. Eating healthy can allow you to eat more food than eating badly.

     Eating healthy does not mean you are skimping out or sacrificing. Eating healthy can mean eating delicious foods. It really is about dedicating yourself to learning how to make meals that you will love.

      A lot of people have a mind set that eating healthy means eating "gross" food and that it's something you have to do just to lose weight. But if you want to look healthy you have to eat healthy and fully enjoying it is the key to sticking with it. Does that mean you can never eat dessert again? Or pizza? No, of course you can. This is where my view on cheat days comes in.

     I personally don't have a set cheat day. I eat healthy everyday and always try to make the best food decisions possible. Sometimes I do feel like just eating whatever and not worrying. Once you start getting into the habit of eating right and know how to cook correctly, I think it's okay to eat a "cheat" meal. I almost never go out to eat or consume something blindly. I have to know what is in it.

     Yesterday I decided to go out and eat sushi. Sushi is high in sodium, I know. But If you make the decision to eat something that may not be too great for you, I do think you should be conscious of why you are making that decision. Is it because you are feeling sad, or mad? Are you bored? Are your friends eating it and you feel left out or are they tempting you? Ask yourself questions like these. You shouldn't eat something just because you don't care or start feeling a certain way.

     I think it's important to know you have self control and you are making the decision fully knowing that you will be okay with it after. If you feel guilty or remorse after something you ate than you probably shouldn't have eaten it.


     Like I said, yesterday I ate sushi, had a mai tai and then when I got home made cookies. For one thing, I still watched my calorie intake and portions. Another thing, I am going to watch what I eat for the rest of the week. Also, the cookies I made, I did put less than half the sugar it called for, substituted other ingredients and made them healthier. If you are going to have dessert, try finding healthy options and recipes that show you how to substitute. Most of the time you really can't tell the difference.













For recipe information on these oatmeal cookies: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Healthy Homemade Pancakes!

I don't like pancakes all the time, I have to be in the mood for them. Recently I made some that were really good! I decided to take a picture and share the recipe. Here's how I make whole wheat pancakes.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 cup almond milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
cinnamon to taste
1/2 cup of fruit of your choosing-I like blueberries or strawberries.

Mix all the ingredients together, you can add the fruit into the batter and then cook the pancakes or sprinkle fruit on top. 


*Makes 8 pancakes-about 235 calories for 3 medium sized pancakes
*Tips: Use honey instead of syrup or a natural syrup-->1 cup chopped fruit and 1 cup of water. Boil until the water is reduced and starts thickening. 50 to 80 calories per cup.

Easy Healthy Greek Salad!

     My Favorite salad right now is a Greek salad, it just really has a unique flavor. I eat salads regularly and a lot of times I'll meet people that say they don't like salads or they just don't realize that there are so many ways to create a salad. You can use so many different ingredients with different tastes to accommodate anyone's taste-buds. Sooo I'm hoping to eventually have a database of salad recipes of all varieties to meet anyone's salad wants. Today I thought I'd share with you just a simple recipe, and show you what I put in my Greek salad.

Ingredients:

• Lettuce-any kind you want and as much as you want. I use baby lettuce type mixes and about 2 cups of lettuce.
• Tomato
• Red onion
• Cucumber
• Fat Free Feta cheese
• Kalamata olives- I use about 4 cut up.
• Red wine vinegar- Instead of dressing, it's sprinkled on top of the salad. Don't use too much or it will be too strong. You can mix this with olive oil if you prefer, but I don't.
• Chicken-This is optional and really isn't included in most Greek salads but I like to add some grilled chicken every once in awhile.

                                        Just throw it all together in a bowl and enjoy! :)

Leave me a comment below! Let me know what you think and if you did anything different with your salad.